Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	church_n	lord_n	zion_n	118	3	9.2112	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93724	The wels of salvation opened or, a treatise discovering the nature, preciousnesse, usefulness of Gospel-promises, and rules for the right application of them. By William Spurstowe, D.D. pastor of Hackney near London. Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1655 (1655)	Wing S5100; Thomason E1463_3; ESTC R203641	126,003	320

answerable promise that assures comfort the one holding forth the good to be done the other the good to be received Fourthly it is of particular good things And this may serve to hint and point out one considerable difference between the Covenant of grace and the promises The Covenant that is as the entire Vintage of the heavenly Canaan And the promises they are as the severall clusters of blessing that is as a glorious constellation of many celestial bodies in the firmament of the Scriptures and they are as so many single stars shining in their proper orbes that is as the totall summe in the Inventory of a beleevers estate and they are as the distinct particulars which make it up All the sweetnesse beauty worth that are diffused throughout the promises are collected in the Covenant as the scattered light in the creation was into the body of the Sun Gods Stipulation of becoming ours and of making us to be his Jer. 31. 33. comprizeth every thing that is desirable from the first of goods to the last and is both the basis and the spire the corner-stone and the top-stone of every Christians happinesse Fifthly and lastly is added the evils that he will remove And this takes in all the privative mercies and blessings which the promises of the Gospel do hold forth to beleevers which though they be not the resplendent part of their happinesse are yet of so necessary a concurrence unto it as that without them it can never be absolute or entire True happinesse consists of a double branch of an immunity or freedome from evils and the enjoyment of good both which are tacitly couched in every promise but in many most expresly and fully set down Psal 84. 11. to them that walk uprightly the Lord God is a Sun and a shield c. A Sun to give life and a shield to preserve life given A Sun to make fruitful in all good and a shield to protect from all danger Isa 25. 6 7 8. the felicity of the Church is described by a feast of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined that the Lord will make unto his people in mount Zion but to render these dainties the more pleasing he promiseth also To take away the face of the covering to swallow up death in victory to wipe away all tears from their eyes Blindnesse that may hinder the clear knowledge death that may interrupt the perpetuity sorrow that may diminish the sweetnesse of this blessed estate shall all by a powerful hand be removed and done away CHAP. III. In which the excellency and preciousnesse of the promises is demonstrated in three particulars HAving shew'd what a promise is the second thing that falls under consideration is The great worth and excellency of the promises which in divers respects will appear to be such as if compared with the choicest of earthly comforts the one will be as a sovereigne elixir full of spirits and the other as the unactive and saplesse dregs Or if with the richest treasures of the world the one will be as so much refined gold and the other as so much impure drosse What Job saith concerning the power of God If I speak of strength lo he is strong may truly also be said of the riches of the promises if ye speak of worth lo they are precious indeed SECT 1. Christ the root of the promises First the promises do derive a preciousness from the root and principle from whence they spring They are as so many beames of Christ the Sun of righteousnesse and do impart a light which discovers his excellency evidenceth our propriety and effecteth in us a blessed purity They are the desirable fruit of the tree of life not of that tree of life in the beginning of the Bible which stood in Adams Paradise on earth but of that in the end of the Bible in Saint Johns Paradise in heaven not of that which was guarded with Cherubims and a flaming sword that it might not be touched but of that in the midst of the City of God free for every beleever to put forth the hand of faith and to take and eat of the fruit of it both as food and medicine They are the crystal streams of that river of life which proceeded out of the Throne of God and the Lamb Revel 22. 1. Whose waters in time of drought never fail but with their overflowing plenty satisfie the thirsty with their cooling vertue allay the heat of the wearied and with their sweetnesse cheere and revive the drooping and dejected spirits And now methinks I cannot but make a pause and stand a while admiring both a beleevers happinesse and Christs bounty each of which are of such transcendency as that they better suit with an holy wonderment then with the most lively and full expressions Oh! how happy is every beleever whose light is the love of Christ shining in the raies of the promises whose food is the tree of life that continually yields fruit both new and various whose cordials are the waters of life not sparingly given to a bare sustentation but freely flowing to a delightful satiety Well might David in a rapture say Lord What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him for thou hast made him a little lower then the Angels Psal 8 4 5. And well also might Paul as one standing upon the shoare and fathoming the sea of Gods mercy cry out O the depth of the riches of God! Rom. 11. 35. And most joyfully may every heire of the promise say My lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Psal 16. 6. to whom such precious promises are given as exceed both in glory and certainty all earthly performances whatever being in Christ from whom they all come Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. SECT 2. The promises the root of Faith Secondly the promises may be said to be great and precious in respect of that proximity and peculiar relation which they have to the most excellent and noble grace of faith above all other graces whatsoever They are the precious objects of precious faith as the Apostle stiles it 2 Pet. 1. 1. True it is that the quickening influence and vertue of the promises doth reach every grace of the Spirit whereby they are both facilitated and strengthened in their several motions and operations by them hope is kept alive in its expectation of Good patience is supported under difficulties holinesse is perfected love is inflamed and a blessed feare of God is preserved But yet all this is not done by the immediate intercourse which these graces have with the promises but by the intervention of faith which first feeds upon them as the Manna of the Gospel and then communicates the sweetness and vertue that it draws and receives from them in a suitable manner to every other grace As the root first sucks the juyce and sap from the